The mission of the 8th Aquatic Animal Models of Human Disease Conference, set for January 7-12, 2017, is to provide scientists using aquatic animal models a unique opportunity to exchange scientific information, identify research tools and opportunities, address environmental health issues, and encourage the utility of aquatic models for the study of human disease.

Our conference boasts a program replete with established scientists employing contemporary technologies to produce the most impacting results. In addition, this conference remains firm in its commitment to en­courage platform and poster sessions that allow more junior scientists and graduate students opportunities to present their work and to network with established investigators from around the world.

For more information, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Abstract submission deadline extended to Nov. 1!

Keynote Address

Paul Katz, "Model organisms in the light of evolution"

Paul S. Katz has a history of working on aquatic organisms. His first neuroscience research was in an undergraduate summer research program at Yale University, where he studied responses of lamprey giant axons to injury.

He got his undergraduate and masters degrees at Northwestern University, where he studied olfaction in tadpoles as they metamorphose. He did his PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University. There he studied the role of serotonin modulating the motor pattern produced by the stomatogastric ganglion of crabs. He went on to do post-doctoral work at Brandeis University, where he worked on neurons cultured from the sea hare, Aplysia. Dr. Katz was a research assistant professor position at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he began his studies on nudibranch molluscs in collaboration with William Frost. He moved to Georgia State University in 1997. He is currently a Regent's Professor in the Neuroscience Institute and the director of the Center for Neuromics.

Dr. Katz's research is centered on understanding how neuronal circuits operate. He uses nudibranchs because they have fairly simple brains and simple behaviors. Furthermore, because there are many species with similar nervous systems, the neural circuits can be compared across species to learn about the evolution of neural circuits and behavior.